Jonas Salk Autobiography

Jonas Salk Autobiography

Full Name: Mr. Jonas Edward Salk
Date of Birth: October 28, 1914
Place of Birth: New York, New York, USA
Died: June 23, 1995
Place of Death: La Jolla, California, USA
Classification: Scientists & Thinkers


With polio spreading at an enormous rate of nearly 60,000 reported cases a year by 1950, Jonas Salk became internationally famous for his polio or ‘Salk’ vaccine. Through his and his colleague’s work, polio would virtually be eliminated in the United States and abroad within five years.

Jonas Salk was born to Russian-Jewish immigrants. He claimed he was never interested in science or medicine, but he did claim in an interview later that what has always interested him was the human side of science; seeing the benefits of science on humanity. After wanting to become a lawyer, his mother convinced the then young Jonas to pursue a career in medicine. He studied at and received his degree from the College of Medicine at New York University in 1939.

Following his studies, he worked at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. In Pittsburg, he was able to receiving funding that allowed him to pursue his attempts at finding a vaccine for polio. Within seven years, his vaccine was being used on area children in what became the first public testing of any vaccine, where some would receive the vaccine and some would receive a placebo. His vaccine worked and his passions were realized. Throughout the years, he worked on other vaccines, and in the 1980s and early 1990s, at nearly 80 years-old, he worked on a vaccine for AIDS.

Jonas Salk moved to California and started up the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where he worked on a variety of fields, including genetics. He headed the operations of the facility until his retirement in the mid 1980s. The Institute still attracts some of the biggest names in science, molecular biology, and genetics even to this day.

Jonas Salk’s polio vaccine worked because he and his colleagues came up with a framework that would kill the virus before it was injected into the body so no live specimens would have to be used. He needed to figure out, however, how he could still get the body to recognize it as a potential hazard. When it finally worked, antibodies against polio would form in the body and would thereby destroy any future attempts at infection. There was some controversy behind his discovery because he did not recognize his colleagues who were so detrimental in the creation of the Salk vaccine.